Another watercolor sketch in my current Japanese garden series. I say sketch to clarify that it is a color and value study even though it is in a painted form. Because I am such a novice in this area, I’m finding it helpful to do these practice studies in my sketchbook/art workbook as a way […]

“I come not to bury Caesar but to water him.” My husband said that. I think it’s the perfect caption so I’m stealing it. With credit, of course.
We saw this display yesterday at Descanso Gardens. No lie. Somebody call Carson, this Roman needs a serious makeover.
Oh, the ostensible reason for doing this drawing, other […]

It’s startling to me at times how I can get so caught up in what I’m doing and ignore the obvious.
Today I spent some time at Descanso Gardens with my husband, enjoying the beauty of a spring (Valentine’s) day, and I took my time doing a very detailed line drawing of a magnolia twig. As […]

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!

As you can see, I use my journals for a lot of different purposes, not only for sketching pleasure. As I’ve committed myself to doing more painting this year, I find that I’m reaching for it more and more as a practical workbook, not a chronological diary of my days. In fact, I have […]

A quick direct-painted watercolor sketch on drawing paper in preparation for an actual painting - maybe watercolor, maybe oil. Maybe both. But not at the same time, that would be insane.
This is a little azalea thicket at Descanso Gardens which occasionally becomes light-struck when the sun is in just the right position. Most of […]

We went to see Chekov’s Cherry Orchard at the Mark Taper Forum this past week. This is of one of the characters, Pishtchik, drawn in my Moleskine during the performance, and then painted up a little bit later, in Photoshop. He was on the opposite side of the stage, which made it a bit difficult, […]

Read the story. What on earth are they thinking? The soldier in question was an honors West Point grad, medically discharged for injuries suffered while in service.
Oh yeah, “And we’re going to charge you extra for dry cleaning to get the bloodstains out of your camo, too. And don’t forget the security deposit on that […]

Lions dance through fields of firecracker debris. Surely good fortune will follow.
Brush pen in my Moleskine … memories of the Chinese New Year parade.

This time I concentrated on drawing just a few animals, one in closeup … and I learned the names of some of the “regulars.” Remember that dappled Nubian goat I drew in pencil a few weeks ago? I learned that her name is Barretta. I realize this isn’t earth-shattering news, but neither is […]